WPFC-FH's Letter to President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

June 24, 2011

His Excellency Ilham Aliyev
President
Republic of Azerbaijan
19 Istiglaliyat St.
370066 Baku, Azerbaijan
 
Your Excellency:
 
The World Press Freedom Committee of Freedom House —an organization representing 45 press freedom groups from around the world— welcomes the long-overdue release from prison of Azerbaijani journalist Eynulla Fatullayev and urges you and the pertinent judicial authorities to immediately free two social media users, Bakhtiyar Hajiyev  and Jabbar Savalan, who were unfairly imprisoned earlier in the year.
 
Messrs. Fatullayev, Hajiyev and Savalan have all been the victims of the same abuses of authority and judicial harassment Azerbaijani officials have historically used to silence their critics. In all instances, and many others in the past, concocted charges have been leveled on dissidents and critical journalists who have demanded transparency and truthfulness from public officials. It’s high time for Azerbaijan to acknowledge that in the absence of press freedom and freedom of expression, democracy will continue to suffer.
 
Mr. Fatullayev was charged with criminal defamation and given a combined 10-year prison sentence in 2007 stemming from controversial articles he wrote about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. After several international press freedom groups, including WPFC of FH, put pressure on the Azerbaijani government for his release, in April 2010, his case went before the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in favor of the journalist and ordered the State to free him “immediately.”
 
Although the Court determined that “the severity of the penalty imposed on him had constituted a grossly disproportionate restriction of his freedom of expression,” Azerbaijani authorities refused to obey the order, charged him with drug possession and added two and a half years to his original sentence. The new allegations were widely viewed by the international press freedom community as a fabrication to keep Mr. Fatullayev behind bars.
 
The defiance of Azerbaijani authorities re-ignited the resolve of local and international organizations to free Mr. Fatullayev, including a mission to Baku led by Article XIX, Freedom House and others on September of 2010, and a more recent global amnesty Twitter action that flooded the country’s bureaucracy with calls for his immediate release. Finally, on May 28, he was freed as part of a general amnesty for political prisoners coinciding with Azerbaijan’s Republic Day.
 
Freedom of expression, however, continues to be a dangerous practice in Azerbaijan. At least two social media users remain in prison because of their defiance of the government.
 
On May 18, pro-democracy activist Bakhtiyar Hajiyev was sentenced to two years in prison on the charge of alleged evasion of military service, but which we believe is a purely political attempt to silence him. Mr. Hajiyev, a Harvard-graduate who returned to his country a year before his arrest to fight for democracy, had declared his candidacy for parliament, and strongly criticized the authorities via his Facebook page, which he used to try and organize a mass pro-democracy protest.
 
Under similar circumstances, on Feb. 25, 20-year-old activist Jabbar Savalan was arrested on his way home from a political rally in Sumgayit and charged with narcotics possession with intent to supply. Local press freedom groups have described the charges as a plot to silence him after Mr. Savalan also used his Facebook page to call for a “Day of Rage” in Baku coinciding with the historic pro-democracy demonstrations in Egypt. On May 4, he was found guilty of drug trafficking and sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
 
Mr. President, we urge you to use your powers of influence to gain the release of Messrs. Hajiyev and Savalan and to undertake the necessary legal reforms to guarantee the members of the media the necessary environment to keep the public informed without risking their freedom or bankruptcy.
 
Respectfully,
Paula Schriefer                                                                                               
Director of Advocacy                                                                                      
Freedom House                                                                                              

Javier Sierra
Projects Director
WPFC of FH

Enclosure:
CC: Vivian Reding, Commissioner; Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship; European Union
Ambassador to the United States of America Yashar T. Aliyev
Members of Azerbaijan’s independent media
The International Freedom Exchange
Members of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations:
Committee to Protect Journalists
Commonwealth Press Union Trust
Inter American Press Association
International Association of Broadcasting
International Press Institute
North American Broadcasters Association
World Association of Newspapers
World Press Freedom Committee of Freedom House